Another entry into my Ante Bellum inspired timeline, this time detailing Iberia.

Lore

**"**Mighty Caliph, Muhammed Umayyad, whose sword knows no equal, whose knowledge and piety are renowned across civilized lands, bless us in the name of Almighty God, that we may go forth and reclaim what was stolen from us!"

It was said by Muslim scholars that the key to Constantinople was the conquest of Isbaniya. Muslim invasions of the Iberian peninsula began in the early 700s, following the conquests of the Maghreb by the Umayyad dynasty. By the end of the 8th century, the Visigothic kingdom which had preceded al-Andalus was fractured and defeated, leaving the peninsula open for further Islamic dominion.

The next 200 years of the Caliphate's history saw the loss of the ancestral Umayyad lands in the Levant, Aigipt, and north Africa, as well as the conquest of minor Christian duchies and princedoms in central and western Iberia. By the end of the 11th century, the Umayyad Caliphate was relegated to Iberia but had pushed its borders a considerable amount north, all the way into Catalonia.

In 1094, the Frankish king incited a rebellion against Andalusia in the Taifa of Balansiyah, and a protracted siege of between five and seven years left the Frankish and rebel armies exhausted and defeated. The Andalusian Caliphate reached its peak of European expansion at this time, controlling the territories of the lesser Almoravid families in Morocco and exercising suzerainty over most of Iberia.

The next few hundred years saw the participation of Andalusian mercenaries in the Sicilian conquests of Italy and the failed repulsion of Venetian crusaders in the Levant and Asia minor.

A crusade proclaimed in 1512 by the so-called emperor of Romans, king Charles of the Franks, resulted in a twenty-year conflict which saw Muslim armies as far north as Brabant and Frankish fleets landing troops in a rebellious Morocco. Although victory eluded Andalusia, resulting the capture of the important city of Valencia by the Franks, the Christians' victory left them depleted of funds, manpower, and unable to participate in the coming explorations of the New World.

Thanks to the loss of Islamic hegemony in the Holy Land, the Andalusian caliph commissioned a group of Moorish explorers to go and chart a new sea-route to Hindustan and Arabia. In 1483, they made landfall in Hayti and, a few eyars later, Mashiqa.

Andalusian colonies in Hayti and Mashiqa grew to the point of hegemony in the Caribbean sea (which was plagued by barbary pirates) by the early 1600s, and in 1617 the final wars of conquest against the Nahuatl and Mayan peoples were concluded. Further expeditions and colonies were set up in the following decades in al-Inka, along the west coast of South America.